This 14th century manuscript, possibly produced by means of the Pecia System, contains the Super ethica and De causis et processu universitatis by Albertus Magnus. The Pecia System is a method for the quick handwritten reproduction of an original: instead of copying the text as a whole, it is divided into several sections so that several scribes could simultaneously work on creating a copy. This volume belonged to the Dominican Johannes Tagstern and thus became part of the chained library of the Dominican Convent of Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This composite manuscript of mainly astrological-astronomical content includes a journal of weather observations kept over seven years, the so-called Basler Wettermanuskript. It records meteorological observations in daily entries from January 1, 1399 until March 21, 1406, without a single gap. Towards the end of the journal, the entries become more schematic, until finally they transition to tables of the positions of the planets with only occasional comments on the weather. The volume is from the Dominican Convent of Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This French manuscript from the third quarter of the 15th century contains two works from ancient times. Nonius Marcellus (4th/5th century) offers linguistic and factual explanations on Latin authors mainly from the time of the Republic, partly in alphabetically-ordered lemmas; M. Terentius Varro († 27 BC) addresses linguistic questions concerning the Latin language.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Various Aristotelian writings in the Latin translation of Boethius as well as treatises by Boethius, written in a small 13th century script; they were bound together with two 15th century additions, probably for the scholar Johannes Heynlin from Basel, who bequeathed the volume to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. Noteworthy for codicological reasons are the back pastedown and flyleaf, a parchment leaf that had been prepared for a prayer book. It consists of two bifolios with upside down text that should have been folded before binding, as was usual for printed sheets. However, the two bifolios were excluded and were not used in the prayer book; therefore there are no pinholes in the fold.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
In his extensive Tractatus de moribus et disciplina humanae conversationis, the oldest description of playing cards known in Europe, Johannes von Rheinfelden explains not only the rules of play, but in addition he explicates the characters of the figures as well as the entire social order, based on the relation of the cards to one another. Konrad Schlatter, since 1428 confessor and later prior of the cloister of the Dominican nuns St. Maria Magdalena “in den Steinen”, left this treatise to the sisters for their moral edification.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
The surviving parts of Diodorus Siculus' universal history were translated from Greek into Latin in the 15th century. This manuscript containing Books 11 to 13 was written in 1453; probably it is the autograph of the translator Iacobus de Sancto Cassiano Cremonensis, in fact, a revised fair copy which transitions into a working manuscript towards the end.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Composite manuscript of philosophical content, owned by Jakob Lauber and even partially written by him. Jakob Lauber from Lindau studied at the then newly founded University of Basel from 1466 until 1475, first in the Faculty of Arts, then canon law in the Faculty of Law. After serving as rector for a short period, he entered the Carthusian Monastery of Basel in 1477; as its prior from 1480 on, he expanded it significantly and reorganized its library. When he entered the monastery, Lauber's library became the property of the monastery.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
In the 4th century AD, the rhetoric teacher Gaius Marius Victorinus wrote explanatory notes on Cicero's De inventione. In the third quarter of the 15th century, these were copied in a completely uniform script, probably in Frace. The scholar Johannes Heynlin from Basel bequeathed this manuscript, together with the other books in his vast library, to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel. The manuscript shows no signs of use.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This Lucretius manuscript with the long didactic poem De rerum natura is, based on its content, a descendant of the manuscript which Poggio Braccolini discovered in a German monastery in 1417. This manuscript was written in 1468-69, a few years before the text appeared in print, by Antonius Septimuleius Campanus — according to a note at the end of the text — while he was in prison in Rome. At the latest by 1513, the manuscript was in the possession of the humanist Bonifacius Amerbach from Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
This small-format manuscript contains accounts written by Hans Rot († 1452) and his son Peter Rot († 1487) about their pilgrimages to the Holy Land in 1440 and 1453. It is possible that the notes are in their own handwriting.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Fragment from a Glagolitic breviary with texts for August 13th and 14th; based on the script, it can be dated to the 15th century. It belonged to Franz Miklosich (1813-1891), one of the most important Slavicists of his time, and was a gift to the Basel Antiques Collection, the precursor of the Basel Historical Museum.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Postil on Isaiah and the Twelve Minor Prophets, probably written between 1393 and 1396 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with two schematic drawings of the sun dial that illustrates the miracle of the healing of Hezekiah, This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-5 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Three leaves from different manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud from the 14th and 13th century respectively, used as binding material. Two of the leaves contain fragments from the Mishnah Berachot from the Order Zeraim; the third leaf comprises a piece of the Tractate Avoda Zarah from the Order Nezikin, which regulates the relations between Jews and non-Jews and which discusses the problem of idolatry (“foreign worship”).
Online Since: 06/25/2015
Two leaves removed from the binding, from a manuscript in Rhaetian minuscule with the rounded cross-stroke of the “t”, which is considered the identifying characteristic of this script. The manuscript can be dated to the 8th/9th century.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
One of the Isidore codices from the Monastery of Fulda; it survived because it reached Basel in the 16th century, before the library's destruction in the Thirty Years' War. There it apparently served as a possible textual source for a planned edition of Isidore's works. The codex consists of several parts. A German Anglo-Saxon manuscript from the second half of the 8th century containing the second book of Isidore's Synonyma was supplemented in the first third of the 9th century, probably in Fulda, with the first book of the same work by Isidore. Very early already, this was bound together with another item containing Admonitio ad filium spiritualem by Pseudo-Basilius as well as various excerpts, which probably were also written in Fulda around 800.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
This volume contains, among others, writings on the councils; the last treatise is called noviter compilatus. Several hands from the second quarter of the 15th century contributed to the writing. The last page is decorated with a Titulus crucifixi in three languages, written in majuscules in the Byzantine tradition, which spread, often in bizarre forms, from Italy during the time of the councils. Holes in the front cover and traces of rust on the detached front pastedown page establish that the volume used to be part of a chained library.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on Genesis and Exodus, written in 1396 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 52 quarter- to half-page colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 2-6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, written in 1397 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 23 mostly half-page, partly colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1, 3-6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Esdras and Job, written in 1401 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 58 half-page, partly or entirely colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-2, 4-6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015
Postil on Kings and Esther, written in 1400-1401 by the Freiburg priest Rüdiger Schopf, decorated with 52 single-column, partly colored pen and ink drawings. This manuscript is part of a multi-volume, richly illustrated copy of the Bible commentary Postilla super totam Bibliam by Nicholas of Lyra, which the secular priest Rüdiger Schopf from Memmingen created for the Carthusian Monastery of Freiburg between 1392 and 1415. In 1430 the work, to which A II 1-3, 5-6 and 10-13 belong as well, was sold to the Carthusian Monastery of Basel.
Online Since: 03/19/2015